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    A Guide For Academics - Open Book Exams: What Is It?

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    Vishrut Patel
    An open book exam allows students to use notes, textbooks, or other materials during the exam. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking by asking analytical and application-based questions, rather than questions that test rote memorization. However, some pitfalls are that teachers may not know how to write effective open book questions, and students may falsely believe the exam will be easy. When designing questions, teachers should focus on having students interpret, apply, analyze and evaluate concepts, rather than just recall facts. Well-designed open book exam questions present scenarios and data for students to analyze and draw conclusions from.

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    A Guide For Academics - Open Book Exams: What Is It?

    Uploaded by

    Vishrut Patel
    59 views2 pages
    An open book exam allows students to use notes, textbooks, or other materials during the exam. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking by asking analytical and application-based questions, rather than questions that test rote memorization. However, some pitfalls are that teachers may not know how to write effective open book questions, and students may falsely believe the exam will be easy. When designing questions, teachers should focus on having students interpret, apply, analyze and evaluate concepts, rather than just recall facts. Well-designed open book exam questions present scenarios and data for students to analyze and draw conclusions from.

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    LDTI Open Book Exams

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    An open book exam allows students to use notes, textbooks, or other materials during the exam. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking by asking analytical and application-based questions, rather than questions that test rote memorization. However, some pitfalls are that teachers may not know how to write effective open book questions, and students may falsely believe the exam will be easy. When designing questions, teachers should focus on having students interpret, apply, analyze and evaluate concepts, rather than just recall facts. Well-designed open book exam questions present scenarios and data for students to analyze and draw conclusions from.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    59 views2 pages

    A Guide For Academics - Open Book Exams: What Is It?

    Uploaded by

    Vishrut Patel
    An open book exam allows students to use notes, textbooks, or other materials during the exam. The goal is to encourage higher-order thinking by asking analytical and application-based questions, rather than questions that test rote memorization. However, some pitfalls are that teachers may not know how to write effective open book questions, and students may falsely believe the exam will be easy. When designing questions, teachers should focus on having students interpret, apply, analyze and evaluate concepts, rather than just recall facts. Well-designed open book exam questions present scenarios and data for students to analyze and draw conclusions from.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    A Guide for Academics – Open Book exams

    What is it?
    An “open book examination” is an assessment method designed in a way that allows students to refer to either
    class notes and summaries or a “memory aid”, textbooks, or other approved material while answering questions.
    An open book exam can also mean that students are provided with the exam questions prior to sitting the formal
    exam or are to complete as a ‘take-home’ exam.

    Why use them?


    The main premise for open book exams is that teachers can devise questions that require students to answer
    in more critical and analytical ways thus encouraging high-order thinking skills in their students; as compared
    to closed book or traditional exams that tend to encourage rote learning and more superficial application of
    knowledge.
    For further details about the teaching and learning philosophy that underpins open book exams
    http://www.iiserpune.ac.in/~mohanan/educ/openbook.pdf

    What are the pitfalls?


    The main issues that arise when making use of open book exams is that teachers may not know how to develop
    and devise effective exam questions that require students to apply their knowledge through analysis and critical
    thinking; and students may be lulled into a false sense of security and fail to properly prepare for an open book
    exam. Students may falsely assume that the exam will be easy, and they will be able to find all the answers in the
    textbook or on their memory aid.

    Considerations when designing open book exams


    Questions in open book exams need to be devised to assess the interpretation and application of knowledge,
    comprehension skills, and critical thinking skills rather than only knowledge recall.
    Make use of case-based exam questions that require students to apply critical reasoning skills in response to
    a trigger scenario.
    Devise clear and unambiguous questions to limit student confusion and time spent interpreting the question
    so students can spend their time making use of their textbook or memory aid to effectively answer the questions.
    Devise questions that require students to apply and make use of the information from their textbook or notes
    rather than simply requiring them to locate and re-write this information.
    Design your questions and overall exam paper with the learning outcomes in mind i.e. what skills and knowledge
    are you assessing?

    Example ways of designing open book exam questions


    Structure your exam questions around problem-based scenarios or real-world cases, requiring students to apply
    their skills and knowledge to the given problem or scenario.
    Provide information or background information on a given topic or area of study.
    Present relevant qualitative or quantitative data and then ask students interpretative and application questions –
    What does the data show? What relevance does this data or does the scenario have in terms of [component of
    current topic]? What other factors could potentially affect this data? How would you test for these?
    Structure content or topic questions in a way that tests for an ability to apply, analyse, evaluate, create, synthesise,
    interpret etc.
    When devising questions to probe student understanding,skills and knowledge, the socratic questions and questions
    reflective of levels and stages of learning may be useful (please see below).

    P: 4921 8602
    E: ldti@newcastle.edu.au Page 1
    A guide for academics - Open Book exams

    Socratic Questions
    Clarification • What do you mean by…? • Could you provide an example?
    questions • Could you put this another way? • Could you expand upon that point further?
    • What do you think is the main issue?

    Assumption • Why would someone make this assumption? • What could we assume instead?
    questions • What is ____ assuming here? • You seem to be assuming .
    • Do I understand you correctly?

    Reason and • What would be an example? • By what reasoning did you come to that conclusion?
    evidence • Why do you think this is true? • Is there reason to doubt that evidence?
    questions • What other information do we need? • What led you to that belief?
    • Could you explain your reason to us?

    Origin or source • Is this your idea or did you hear it from some • Has your opinion been influenced by something or
    questions place else? someone?
    • Have you always felt this way? • Where did you get that idea?
    • What caused you to feel that way?

    Implications and • What effect would that have? • What are you implying by that?
    consequence • Could that really happen or probably happen? • If that happened, what else would happen as a
    questions • What is an alternative? result? Why?

    Viewpoint • How would other groups of people respond • What might someone who believed _____ think?
    questions to this question? Why? • What is an alternative?
    • How could you answer the objection that ______ • How are ____ and ____’s ideas alike? Different?
    would make?

    Bloom’s Taxonomy
    Knowing and recall knowledge of • What, where, who, when, where …? • Describe …
    remembering subject matter relevant • How many …? • Define …
    to the discussion. • List …
    Understanding demonstrate • In your own words, …
    understanding by • Explain how …
    constructing meaning • What did X mean when …?
    from information. • Give an example of …
    Applying apply knowledge • How would you use …? • How would you solve ___ using what
    and understanding • What examples can you find to …? you’ve learned?
    to a particular task or • What would happen if …?
    problem.
    Analysing examine different • What are the parts or features of …? • Compare and contrast …
    concepts and make • What are the competing arguments • What is the relationship between A
    distinctions between within …? and B?
    them. • Why is X different to Y?
    Evaluating make judgements • What is most important/effective?
    about concepts or • Which method is best?
    ideas. • Which is the strongest argument?
    Creating develop new ideas • How would you design a …? • Suppose you could ___ what would
    from what they • What alternatives are there to …? you do?
    know and understand. • What changes would you make? • How would you evaluate …?
    • What would happen if …? • Can you formulate a theory for …?
    Anderson, L. & Krathwohl, D. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy
    of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
    JB0289 06/2021

    For support with these or other ideas on adapting your course for
    online delivery please contact: ldti@newcastle.edu.au or call 4921 8602

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